And then when an opportunity came for Nikolai to support her a little, he had some one else to spend his money upon.
But the most vexatious part of it was that Nikolai also wanted to forbid her to apply to one who was as good as her own child, when there was the necessity for it.
She would pay no attention to that however.

If _he_ would not help her, he must put up with her going to one who could, now that it was a question of closing the shop and the whole business.
No, she swore she would not go bankrupt.

And she struck the table so that the coppers danced in the drawer.
It was a good thing that it was this week, for next week he was going abroad for two or three months; he had said so himself yesterday, so that both she and Silla heard it.
Nikolai sat quite pale.

His mouth moved as if it were trembling, and he wiped his forehead once or twice with his sleeve.
He looked slowly up at his mother; it was as if he were afraid of getting to hate her.
"You shall have the money." He felt he was on the point of bursting into tears, and must get away to have his rage out.
It was another postponement for him and Silla until the spring.

And where was the end of it to be?
His hand shook and fumbled with the door-handle.
This fresh piece of information, which his mother had so unexpectedly given Nikolai, that it was he who had destroyed her well-being, was like yet another stone weighing him down.
It crushed him like a moral defeat.